No matter how heart smart you think you are, it’s tough to keep up with the latest science. And that lapse could mean that your heart-disease risk is greater than you realize. Here, the most common mistakes midlife women make — and how to avoid them.
1. You sweat silently through hot flashes
Those flashes could be linked to high blood pressure. A preliminary study found that women who reported being bothered by hot flashes during a two-week span had significantly higher blood pressure than those who were untroubled. The link could be due to an increase in norepinephrine, a hormone that can increase heart rate, blood pressure, and blood-sugar levels, according to study author Linda M. Gerber, PhD, of Weill Medical College of Cornell University, in New York City. Be sure to have your blood pressure checked regularly, and if you have a lot of hot flashes, tell your doctor about them. While the study did not specify the exact number of hot flashes, experts consider more than eight to 10 episodes a day above normal.
